Improvement in priming metallic cartridges



T. L. STURTEVANT.

Gartridg.

Patented Apr. 1866.

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Ny PETERS. PHOTOJ. THOGRAPHER wAsmNGTD UNITED VSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS L. STURTEVANT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN PRIMING- METALLIC CARTRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 54,038, dated April 17', 1866. Y

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS L. STURTE- VANT, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cartridges or Chargers of Breech-Loading Fire-Arms; and do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specication and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figures l and 2 are longitudinal sections of a cartridge or charger provided with my in-A vention, which consists in a cartridge-case or charger as made with apercussioucap-receivin g chamber, to extend into it from its external surface, and communicate with the interior or charge chamber of such cartridgecase or charger; and my invention further consists in the combination ot'apercussion-capshell discharger with the cartridge or charger made with a percussioncapreceivingchamber to extend into it from its exterior surface, and to communicate with the charge-space of such cartridge-case or charger.

In the drawing, A denotes the cartridgecase or charger, which may be made of metal or other suitable material. It is provided with a breech, B, and is intended to hold a charge of powder and shot or ball, and, when used, is to be introduced into a gun-barrel at its rear end.

In the said breech is a chamber, a a, for reception of a percussion-cap, b. This chamber opens through the external surface of the breech or the case A, and is intended to be of a diameter just suiicient to en able it toreceive a percussion cap, b', to be inserted Within it,

in manner as shown in the drawings.

In Figs. l and 2 the cap-chamber a ais exhibited as provided with a passage, d., leading from it through the breech, and opening into the powder or charge receiving space of the cartridge or charger.

Within the chamber a a is a cap-discharger, c, Whose purpose is not only to aid in discharging the fulminate of the cap under the blow of the hammer of the lock of the fire-arm, but also to serve as a means of expelling from the chamber the shell. ct' a cap after an explosion of the fulminate of such cap.

In Fig. l the chamber a a is represented as extending `horizontally into the breech B; but

in Fig. 2 it is shown as extending vertically up into such breech. In the one caseit opens out of the rear end of the cartridge, and in the other it opens through its side.

In Fig. l the discharger cis shown as extending through the breech and into the charge-chamber of the cartridge case, ,the

same being to enable a person, by means of a rammer fastened into the cartridge, to force the discharger c back against the cap b, in a manner to expel the latter from its chamber a.

A shoulder, e, formed on the discharger, (see Fig. 1,) abuts against the inner end ofthe chamber a., and serves to arrest the discharge or stop it in its proper forward position.

In Fig. 2 the disoharger c is exhibited as passing laterally into the cartridge-case B, and projecting from it into the percussion-cap b. Under this application of the discharger it may receive in its upper end the blow of the hammer ot' the lock, and by it be driven into the cap, so as to effect the explosion of the fulminate of the cap, after which, and on Withdrawal of the charger from the barrel of the fire-arm, such discharger c maybe employed to expel the waste cap irom the chamber a a.

By the construction shown in Fig. 1 the cap bis intended to receive the biow of the hammer upon its head or part at the mouth of its chamber a a, in which case the cap will be driven forward against the discharger c, and so as to cause an explosion of the fulminate of the cap.

Although I have shown in Fig. l my invention, I have represented in Fig. 2 the same invention carried out iu a different mode from which it is represented in Fig. 1, the principle being the same in each.

The advantage of the cap-chamber a a is, that the percussion-cap bears the same relation to it as the charger does to the barrel of the fire-arm, the same being so that the force of explosion of the charge of the cap may so expand the cap as to cause it to tit tightly against the walls of the chamber, and thus prevent the escape of gas or iiame from the mouth of the said chamber.

I do not simply claim as my invention the cartridge or charger A, as made with the percussion-cap-receiving chamber a a, to extend into it from its external surface, and

communicate with the charge-receiving space from its external surface, and colnmunicate of such cartridge, substantially as specied; with the charge-receiving space o the carbut tridge, substantially as specified.

The combination of the percussion-cap dis` T' L' STURTEVANT charger 0 with the cartridge or charger A, Witnesses: as made with the percussion-capreceiving R. H. EDDY, chamber a a, to extend into the cartridge F. P. HALE, Jr. 

